Kotaku’s got some unfortunate news that makes Sony’s position in Europe even weaker than it is now: the PlayStation Store’s video download area, just launched in America, is staying there until next year at the earliest.
Colour me SERIOUSLY pissed off. Hit the jump for more.
David Reeves, president of Sony’s European gaming division, has announced that the video download service is remaining exclusive to America for the remainder of this year, if not long into 2009. PAL territories – that’s Europe and Australasia – wont be downloading any sorts of premium movie content for quite some time, with proper release schedules to be detailed later in the year.
Said Reeves: “For us, and I think you appreciate most of you European, that local content is important, and that’s what working on right now.” Not sure if that makes sense but effectively “Europe is important but we’re delaying what we’re doing anyway.”
Isn’t it ironic that just yesterday I was commenting on how much Sony have screwed Europe, Australia and other territories outside of Japan and the States? I seriously thought the situation couldn’t get any worse but with this announcement it’s really getting to the stage where Sony are getting a little on the bad side of inexcusable.
One hopes that Sony reads community sites to see what their fans think (SCEA at the very least, as SCEE don’t seem to know the meaning of interfacing with their consumer base) but I have a feeling that the moment they see the word ‘Europe’ they immediately flick over to the next article. Shame really. I’m eyeing up Gears of War and a LIVE account already.
Source: Sony Video Service Not Hitting..Until 2009 – Kotaku
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That’s BullS**t
Why are sony screwing us over?
You’re right Yamster; It’s getting inexcusable.
Microsoft rolled out their video marketplace a year later in Europe too.
While I agree that in some cases those of us in Europe get screwed over, this isn’t one of them. It’s not just a case of deciding you want a video store, writing the code and bang there it is. Agreements have to be negotiated, drawn up and signed with each individual content provider. This pretty much has to be done for every country they want to provide the service in.
I’m starting to sound like Major Nelson but it irritates me when gamers outside of Japan and the US ignorantly plead victim status whenever things don’t happen immediately worldwide.
@Kiltman: You wonder though: why didn’t Sony secure European and Australian deals at the same time, rather than consider it an afterthought once the US deals had gone through?
Common sense?
But don’t forget Australia does not have any video marketplace at all for the 360. And now sony is jumping on the band wagon and is screwing us over.
we don’t even have rock band.
Sony are screwing us (ps3 owners) over in europe.
But i enjoyed reading 360 fanboys laughing when they heard, and people saying ‘omg sony really dont care at all’
Well neither did M$, its not Just sony, which is my only complaint with whats being said.
Other than that i totally agree this sucks, yamster is right that whilst they are making the deals for america to have films why are they not making their european deals too.
It really is as if well get it out in america, then we’ll bother trying for europe. =/
@Yamster
Sony have two choices: either set it up solely in the US in time to go live at E3, or wait another, who knows, 6-12 months to go live worldwide.
As nice and egalitarian as the second is, by doing the first they can obviously get it out faster. What really sounds more impressive ~18months into the console’s lifespan? “We have no video service” or “We have a video service which covers a third of our customer base and we’re actively working on the other two thirds”
As much as it sucks having to wait for things, it’s better for the future of the console and the Playstation brand that they’re being seen to be making tangible progress rather than being even further behind then they already are by not making a move until everyone can move together.
The only thing that bothers me, is Canada is never considered part of the US for this crap. Us canadians are without it as well. When they said it will be live tonight at E3, they should have said only in the US, not Live cause that constitues North American not USA.
you know, I am THAT close to selling my PS3 for all those 360 games i want. I’m not a fanboy, but the way this gen has gone for Sony, I see it as the beginning of their end.
@Kiltman67
Although you’re right it sounds good for the ps3 to say its got it out in some areas, working on the others.
But, when they started building this and getting the licenses, let say for arguments sake, 6months ago, in america. Why were they not at exactly the same time they started in america going to the european compaines and starting their talks with them.
Maybe some compaines in europe are slower to react, and we’d have to wait a month, maybe 2
But you cant claim that it takes the UK compaines over an extra 6motnhs it does for the US ones.
Also, they are seen to be doing well in america, those who read this stuff from europe are only getting a worse opinion of sony.
I’ll never understand why companies like Sony and M-soft wouldn’t take advantage of the EU’s number of gamers. Those guys are more hardcore than ones in the states for sure.
@Bumblebear
I’m not claiming European companies are slower than US ones. But to set it up in the US and UK requires twice the time and manpower that it does to set it up just in the US.
Also Europe is a much more complicated place to work in. In America with just one set of agreements you can provide for potentially 300million people. But Europe is not a country, it’s a collection of countries, so each of them requires their own set of agreements. It’s simply more efficient to focus on America because for the same amount of work you can touch more people.
I’m not American, I don’t care about America. I’m Australian and care about the service SONY provides (or doesn’t) here.
The PS3 is $699 here with a currency difference of 3%, U.S $399…? The Playstation Store is rubbish compared to the U.S and EVERYTHING costs twice (or more) as much.
I am so pissed of with SONY I can’t find the words…I genuinely think I despise them as a company.
@Yamster: I get the impression that the brains behind setting up the movie and TV deals with the providers in the US is a completely different team from the EU. I don’t know what the EU team does?
Do they sit about eating croissants?
I just don’t see how difficult it would be to set up relationships with film and TV providers to supply content to the EU. I mean, they have to localise for DVD release don’t they?
This also doesn’t stop at games but, with Microsoft anyway they are always setting up sponsorships with companies to provide free games, themes, pics, competitions etc?
I think we should try and find out what Microsoft and Sony EU divisions actually do all day.